Barbra Austin for Girls’ Guide to Paris (2011) “…in the evenings the menu is built for grazing, with an ever-changing roster of small plates, some simple (ham, chorizo), some less so. There was a brandade that had been deconstructed into a brothy concoction, light, loose and delicious. A bowl of boeuf bourguignon was topped with crisp carrots and curvy crosnes…”

The Paris Notebook (2011) “…even when Aizpitarte misses, I like what he’s trying to do…turning out his own style of inventive cooking, using exceptional ingredients, at affordable prices. In doing so, he makes avant-guard cooking, a little more accessible to all.

Aaron Ayscough (2010) “…there are simply no disappointing glass pours…the menu is the work of a real overachiever…the other night when I dropped by with my friend F, we shared a plate of pousse-pieds, or goose barnacles…”

Meg Zimbeck for BlackBook (2010) “…Put a bar in the middle and serve the most pedigreed natural wines at ridiculously low prices – €5 per glass. Line the counter with pretty Belleville girls and dangle long strips of Iberian ham in front of their noses. Put some foam on the sea scallops with salsify, some blood sausage on the oyster tapioca. Call it the most hyped (and rightly so) wine bar in Paris.”

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5 thoughts on “Le Dauphin”

This was the worst service I’ve ever had since living in Paris for nearly two years. Absolutely horrible – so much so that me and my friends had to just laugh about it later that night.

The staff is haughty and just outright rude. Plus, they never brought out one of the dishes we ordered and still tried to charge us for it. When we mentioned it to them (twice), they finally gave us the new bill and didn’t even apologize. What a pretentious, holier-than-thou staff. Atrocious.

Service aside, if the food was amazing, I would still consider giving it another shot, but the food was nothing special and overpriced. They serve French-style small plates starting at 10 euros each – when the dishes should definitely be priced lower. The only two dishes that stood out to our group of four were the mushroom dish and the cheese dessert…which they don’t have to cook obviously. What a disappointment.

With so many better, friendlier restaurants in Paris, don’t waste your time on Le Dauphin. You couldn’t pay me to go back.

le Daupin is nice, but there are great tapas-sized dishes and a much more laid-back atmosphere just a few blocks away at the Chair de Poule… great dining, less expensive and less of that food snob attitude.

I definitely prefer this over Chateaubriand, simply for the non fussy nature of the place and better quality of food. Whilst the wildly experimental are still not to my taste, I did like the wine selection and the variety of small plates. Made for a very nice evening.